CITIZEN KANE, ROSEBUD AND THE JALAN BUKIT BINTANG DYSTOPIA

A forbidding silhouette of the Menara 118 with its sharp edges, rigid and unnatural presence symbolizes the rawness of data and algorithm which is now known as Artificial Intelligence.

An old man sitting alone in a cold and empty street, void of any presence of life, maybe perhaps the crows, patiently awaits any sort of leftovers. Here he sits with his collection of books of stories and of knowledge, but moreover, the wisdom that comes with it. He symbolizes Human Intelligence.

Like in the film Citizen Kane. Its pronunciation alone is sharp, edgy, and unnatural (as also Xanadu, the name of his estate, containing the X cross). The main protagonist grows as a businessman and lost his humanity until the end he misses his childhood where he was happy by recalling the name of his sled - A soft, natural, and poetic, Rosebud.

We are at a time where we prefer to ask questions to a machine rather than humans. Machines will give you correct data. Humans will give you the synthesis of the experience. And you the receiver will draw your own. Only with that, we could evolve and mature as a civilization. With art and philosophy.

It is ironic that our education system puts the lower grades of students into the 'literature' classes while the higher grades one goes to the 'science' classes. We have forgotten that the best is to merge the two and grow Alchemists, a lost archetype of old.

Perhaps that is how the modern system divides and classifies humans to be fed into the civilization's 'machines'. To abide rather than question. To walk a drawn and 'destined' path.

The modernist screens and cinemas that we are watching promote a lifestyle through their movies. Suggesting subliminally to us on what to be and how to think. How to speak and what to wear. Yet now we see many that have 'arrived' at their goals asking questions, "Is this it?" Perhaps no one told them of the 'price' we have to pay to be there. Just like Citizen Kane.

But that is for another post. The image attached is done in Unreal Engine 5.2 for the Pwnishers Weekly 3D Challenge with the prompt 'Library'. Bukit Bintang is a name of a business vicinity in Kuala Lumpur.